Future Plans – Why BDC

Before we first started Brush Dental Care (BDC), we had to determine why someone would want to work for our company. Of course, we are nice guys who are highly ethical, but we knew we had to offer more substantive reasons for a dentist to join and be a lasting member of the BDC team. Listed below are some reasons we came up with before starting the company, and more importantly, some of the reasons we’ve developed after operating the company for a couple of years. Ultimately, we believe Brush Dental Care lowers the risk for dentists running their practice and helps to facilitate the dentist with accomplishing their business goals.

Experienced Management Expertise – Managing staff is normally the most difficult and time consuming task that dentists face. Making difficult decisions and conveying them to staff can be challenging and, quite frankly, the part of the job that dentists enjoy the least. Making a bad management decision can also be extremely costly and be very difficult to reverse without staff discontent or even turnover. Brush Dental Care has valuable experience in managing employees. Our organization has dentists with experience working in multiple offices and a business professional that brings proven management experiences from outside the dental field. Additionally, Brush Dental Care offloads most of the non clinical management tasks from the dentist. All dentists should have full authority to manage staff from a clinical perspective. Because having a good staff is essential to a dental office, it’s extremely important to utilize proven management techniques and not rely on inexperienced or unproven routines which can have a significant, long-term, negative impact to the practice and organization.

Realistic Expectations – Working at Brush Dental Care is different than working for other companies which operate a number of dental offices. First, we have a partnership model and we have and are committed to promoting dentists to Partners. We realize promoting dentists who are committed to Brush Dental Care, are proven performers, and want to make Partner should be promoted. From our perspective, it is simple. In order to retain good employees for the long term they deserve the opportunity to be promoted. It is beneficial for the dentist and for Brush Dental Care to have Partners. However, in certain situations, a dentist may not want to become a Partner and therefore continue working as an associate which is also acceptable. It really depends on the dentist’s goals. Last, we do not pressure our dentists for high production numbers because this causes turnover and burn out. We work smart, have low corporate overhead, make sound business decisions, staff efficiently, and focus on business margins versus singularly focusing on top line production revenue.

Professional Peer Group – Being a dentist can be a lonely profession. Dentists often do not have a network of working associates with similar work and educational backgrounds to discuss work matters. Having a network of peers to share information with and learn from can not only be helpful professionally but can also is a great source of camaraderie.

Outsourced Services – Dentists are often not comfortable or educated in the areas of general accounting, vendor management, payroll, information technology, recruiting, and incentive planning. At Brush Dental Care, dentists do not have to be singularly responsible for these tasks. Dentists can focus on patient care and become involved in these processes on an ad hoc basis if desired. With the industry trend of lower reimbursements and more paperwork, we feel it is essential for dentists to maximize their productive time treating patients versus spending valuable time and off hours on business related activities. Additionally, having some services outsourced promotes a better work life balance.

Staffing and Resource Availability – Patients have emergency dental needs during the weekend or times when the office is not open. At Brush Dental Care, we believe dentists need a break away from work. Therefore, we rotate the emergency support phone in order to allow dentists to actually take a break from work and relax with their family and friends. This time away from the office is critical to avoid burnout and is reassuring for the dentist to know that their patients are still being treated with great quality care by another Brush Dental Care professional. Resource sharing is also a benefit for those emergency staffing needs. BDC dentists are able to assist other BDC offices when there is a request for temporary, part time, or emergency staffing needs.

Proven Marketing Techniques – Over the first two years of our existence, we’ve found marketing techniques that provide immediate results and are extremely cost effective. We do not believe in wasting resources on the latest marketing fads and unproven campaigns which have very unpredictable results.

Working for a Group of Practices Not a Group Practice –Autonomy, decision making authority, and potential for development are critical aspects of a position in the dental field and ones that Brush Dental Care feels are extremely important. Working for a group practice may limit your ability to grow in these areas. In a multi-dentist group practice you normally work for a senior dentist who started the practice, have limited influence about change and treatment philosophy, and typically you are not in a true supervisory position. Risk of job dissatisfaction also exists by working in a group practice. For example, a dentist can feel that they are not carrying their weight because they work at a slightly slower pace than other dentists in the practice. Additionally, staff or patients favoring working with another dentist in the practice can be very humiliating and lead to “internal bickering”. Lastly, confusion surrounding the process of becoming a Partner in a group practice is often apparent. Brush Dental Care believes in practices having one dentist, a clear path to partnership, and playing a supportive role in the dentist’s career.

Treatment is Not Dictated – At Brush Dental Care, a supervisory dentist is not looking over your shoulder nor is treatment planning dictated. Every dentist treats patients differently and needs autonomy in how they administer treatment to their patients. Treatment should be based on the dentist adhering to a strong ethical foundation and by understanding the patient’s options depending on multiple factors including age, health, and financial position.

In Need of a Change – Sometimes in professional’s careers they feel like their job becomes monotonous or stale and they feel like a change could spark new interest and revive passion again for their job. Dentists can feel this way from being overworked, stressed about past management or financial decisions, or concerned about the changing industry dynamics. Working with a new business partner can help alleviate these concerns and hopefully help you regain the passion again for helping patients’ dental health.

Power of the Network – Being able to work as a group of dental practices does have benefits when negotiating prices and reimbursement rates with vendors and insurance companies. Our network and Partners benefit from this advantage.

Benefits – Brush Dental Care has a proven track record of promoting a dentist to Partner and offers an attractive benefit package which includes paid time off, 401K, and CE reimbursement.